Trauma is the leading cause of death among US individuals younger than 44 years. Hemorrhagic shock accounts for 30-40 percent of traumatic mortality. Bleeding is also the most common preventable cause of death on the battlefield. Applications of tourniquets to compressible hemorrhages results in a marked decrease in limb exsanguinations. According to the US army, hemorrhage not amenable to truncal tourniquets (also called non-compressible hemorrhage) is now the leading cause of preventable death. Some of the non-compressible hemorrhages occur due to bleeding into body cavities (such as the abdomen or chest), while others are caused by wounds in the junction between the trunk and the limbs or neck.
Effective prevention of blood loss in the pre-hospital arena offers the best opportunity to save soldiers with non-compressible injuries, therefore major efforts are undertaken to develop technologies for this unmet need. It has been demonstrated that thrombosis can be induced in a clamped blood vessel by minutes-long application of direct electric current. However, associated thermal damage precluded the use of this technology in clinical practice.
In addition, hemorrhage is a leading cause of death in operating rooms across the world. Approximately 4 in every 10,000 surgical patients, and 6 in every 10,000 patients receiving anesthesia, suffer fatal cardiac arrest within 30 postoperative days. Hemorrhage is responsible for 33% of these cardiac arrests.
Hence, there is a need for a quick and efficient method of preventing or controlling hemorrhage conditions in an organ without causing tissue damage. Such hemorrhage control would be applicable all hemorrhage situations and particularly in combat and operating room scenarios.